


Finding it Hard to Believe We're in Heaven

by sillylourry



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-11
Updated: 2013-09-11
Packaged: 2017-12-26 08:06:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/963573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sillylourry/pseuds/sillylourry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry Styles never really had a home. Or a family. He just traveled from house to house, from family to family, hoping one will stick. They never do.</p><p>This house, they tell him, is different. He’ll stay here until a family comes and decides they want him. There will be other kids here too. Kids who also don’t have homes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding it Hard to Believe We're in Heaven

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my first fanfics. It's like my baby.

Harry Styles never really had a home. Or a family. He just traveled from house to house, from family to family, hoping one will stick. They never do.

This house, they tell him, is different. He’ll stay here until a family comes and decides they want him. There will be other kids here too. Kids who also don’t have homes.

For the first couple of days, they don’t pay Harry any attention. Which is nice. He had never really been around other kids before and they, in a way, intimidated him. They all seemed to get along. Some more than others. The group of four that were always together, never failed to capture Harry’s interest.

They sat together, in the back of the common room, every day. Harry assumed they were telling secrets, from the way they sat, all huddled together. He would love to know what they talked about. It’s probably something really interesting. They seemed like rather interesting people.

The one that caught his eye first, was the blond one. He saw him the first day he came to the house. He was getting a tour and the boy ran by, laughing about who knows what, and disappeared into the kitchen. Niall, is his name. The first thing you notice about him is that he’s loud. Louder than anyone Harry has ever met. Which isn’t a bad thing. Niall always made Harry laugh, even though he has never talked to him. Sometimes, when the four boys are huddled together, Niall throws his head out of the circle and starts laughing. It would echo throughout the room and on many occasions, Harry is still able to hear it from the other end of house. Just the sound of it sent Harry into a fit of giggles. He can’t help it, that laugh is contagious.

That’s all Harry can really say about Niall. He doesn’t really know anything else, other than what can easily be seen just by looking at him. He’s small and has blond hair that sticks up in places. He has an accent, which Harry used to not have any clue to what it was, but now that he’s heard him talk on several occasions, he assumes it’s Irish.

The next boy that Harry saw was Liam. He actually got to talk to Liam. On Harry’s first night at the house, Liam walked over to him and introduced himself. He was nice. They both had no clue what to say, so the conversation didn’t last very long. However, it was still very nice of Liam to make an effort. He’s the only one that has. He seems like somebody who Harry could easily be friends with.

Liam also is very attached to Niall. Harry thinks it’s kinda like a big brother bond. Niall does stuff that could potentially get him in trouble, and Liam always seems to be there to keep things under control. They balance each other out. In return for keeping an eye out for him, Niall sometimes sneaks into the kitchen late at night, when he thinks everyone else is asleep, and will bring Liam cookies and apple juice. It’s an odd combination, but Liam seems to like it.

Liam is always so busy keeping Niall out of trouble that he always fails to see Zayn following his every move. It’s not in a creepy way though. It’s similar to the way Harry’s dad’s eyes would follow his mom as she went about her day. It’s a loving thing. Whether Zayn just loves Liam like a brother, Harry isn’t sure.

Zayn is the one that confuses Harry the most. Most of the time, he’s quiet and listens as the other three talk. But sometimes, he’ll say something in a silly voice and it’s completely random and weird and Harry often wonders what goes on in Zayn’s mind. He seems like an incredibly cool person. His hair is dark and it swoops up, which is something Harry could never do with his curly hair. Harry has only heard him talk a few times, and he was either saying something incredibly weird, or overwhelmingly deep.

The last boy, is Louis. He’s funny. Not that Harry has ever talked to him. Just, whenever the boys are huddled together, they always laugh after something Louis says. He’s older than the rest of them, not that anybody can tell. He has light brown, feathery hair that sweeps in front of his forehead. He’s shorter than the rest, and will stand on his toes whenever the four of them are standing in a line, just so he seems taller. He kind of reminds Harry of Peter Pan. The others are like his lost boys.

Louis is the one Harry constantly wants to know more about. He seems the most interesting. If Louis starts laughing, Harry finds himself wondering what it was that made Louis laugh. He doesn’t know why Louis strikes his interest more than the others do, he just does.

~

“Harry, right?” A surprising familiar voice asks, shaking Harry out of thoughts. He turns his head away from the window, and looks at the person standing at the entrance of the attic.

“Yeah, and you’re Louis.” He says, scooting over on the bench below the window, so that Louis can sit next to him. Louis hesitates for a second, before shuffling over to the space.

“Is this where you come to hide?” Louis asks. His eyes wander to the window. Outside, cars pass by and people are making their way home after a long night at work.

“It’s where I come to think.” Harry responds a few moments later. “It’s quiet up here. I’m too high up to hear the sounds from the streets, and too sheltered away to hear anyone in the house.”

It’s quiet for a few minutes, before Louis asks, “Do you like it here?”

Harry lets out a loud laugh. Louis jumps at the sudden outburst. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. And to answer your question, no, I do not like it here. But, it’s nothing that anybody can really change. I haven’t liked any place that I’ve stayed at. As far as houses go though, this one is one of the better ones.”

Louis nods his head. “I lost my parents when I was four. I’ve lived here ever since. It’s really not that bad after a while. You can hang out with me and the boys. Having friends makes it a lot better.” He says putting his hand on Harry’s shoulder. Harry tenses under his hand.

“That would be nice.” He whispers.

Louis smiles, “Cheer up, Harry! Trust me, you’re gonna love it here. By the way, how old are you?”

“Nine.” Harry answers, pulling his knees up to his chin and hugging his legs. Louis moves to the same position.

“Cool! That’s the same age as Liam and Niall. I’m eleven. And Zayn is ten.” His voice gets louder with excitement. Harry puts his finger up to lips. Louis takes the hint and lowers his voice. “I think they’ll really like you, Harry. They only person I’m worried about is Zayn, just because he’s so shy.” He says so quietly that Harry has to lean in to hear him.

“You don’t have to talk that quietly.” He laughs. “Just not too loud. It’s late, and if the people… what are their names?”

“The couple who runs the house? That’s Mr. and Mrs. Higgins.” Louis says running his finger along the windowsill.

“Yeah, if they find out that I’m not in bed, I’ll get in trouble. And I also don’t want anybody to know about this place.” He says. Louis tilts his head.

“I’m sorry I followed you up here, then. I won’t come up here anymore, if you don’t want me to. And I won’t tell anyone.” He assures him.

“Don’t worry about it. You can come up here whenever you want. It can be our secret!“ Harry smiles just at the thought of it. He had never had a secret with anyone before. Louis smiles back at him.

“Sure! It can be our special place. Whenever we want to hang out, just the two of us, we can come up here.” They both sit there silently for a few minutes. Louis turns his body away from Harry and rests his arms on the windowsill, letting his chin fall to his hands. Harry does the same. They stare out the window, their breath fogging up the glass.

“Louis?” Harry whispers.

“Yeah?”

“Why did you follow me up here?” He asks. Louis lets out a long, shaky breath.

“Because I wanted to know more about you.” He says. “Because I see you sit by yourself every day and I’ve always wanted to talk to you, but never did because… well, I actually don’t know why. I think it’s because I was with the boys. But you sneak out of bed every night and disappear down the hall, and I was just curious to see where you go.” Harry nods and continues to look out the window.

“Promise me you won’t tell anyone about this place.” He asks, his eyes fluttering shut.

“I promise.” Louis whispers. Harry grins and slides his hand across the windowsill, until it is next to Louis’. He sticks out his pinky and waits. I few seconds later, another pinky curls up around his and they shake.

Harry keeps his eyes closed. It feels as if hours ago by, but he knows deep down that it’s only been a few minutes. “What time is it?” He murmurs.

“Almost two.” Louis responds. He sighs and lifts his head off his hands. “Come on, Harry, we should probably go back to bed.” Harry groans and sinks down further into his spot on the bench. “Don’t be difficult. Come on, get up.”

After a few more groans in protest, Harry stands up. The two walk back downstairs. They tiptoe past the other rooms until they get the room they share with all the other boys, at the end of the hall.

“Be very quiet. Niall is an extremely light sleeper.” Louis whispers. Harry nods. The older boy slowly opens the door, and they walk in. They go to their assigned beds, and carefully get in, making sure that they make no sound.

Harry almost falls asleep the second his head hits the pillow, but before his eyes shut, he mumbles, “Hey Louis?”

“Yeah?” Louis asks, half asleep.

“Goodnight.” He breathes out before his tiredness takes over, his eyes close, and he falls asleep.

~

“Is he awake?” An Irish accent asks.

“Well obviously not, Niall. Can’t you see that his eyes are still closed? Now get away from him, let him sleep.” Harry can hear Louis say.

“I’m not hurtin’ anybody,” Niall protests. Louis sighs and Harry can hear him walk over.

“Come on mate. Why don’t you and I go find Liam and Zayn? Harry will be up in a few hours.” Louis says softly.

It’s quiet for a few moments before Niall starts shuffling away. “Fine,” he mumbles. A few seconds later, a door opens, and they both walk out. Harry smiles, rolls over onto his side, and falls back asleep.

~

Two hours later, Harry manages to get himself out of bed. He rubs his eyes and makes his way to the common room. Most of the other kids are up already. A few of them smile warmly up at him, which is weird, given that they’ve never paid any attention to him before.

“He’s up!” Niall screams from the back of the room. He jumps up from his spot on the couch, and comes running, full speed, towards Harry. “Hi there! Louis has told us a lot about you.”

“Has he?” Harry asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Don’t think too highly of yourself, Styles. I didn’t tell them that much.” Louis chuckles from the couch. Niall laughs and reaches out, grabbing Harry’s wrist.

“Come on!” He says, pulling Harry over to the others. “You already know Louis, and this is Liam.” Niall says, motioning to Liam. Harry gives Liam a nod, which the boy returns. “And this is Zayn.”

Zayn looks up at Harry, smiles shyly, and then looks back down. Harry would have taken offence, but he remembered what Louis had told him the night before.

“Alright Niall, back away now, let the boy breathe.” Louis chuckles. Niall sighs and steps away from Harry. “Come on, Harry, let’s get the others something to eat.” Louis suggests, pulling himself up off the couch.

“Sure.” He says. Louis starts walking towards the kitchen. Harry follows, but stops midstep. He quickly turns back around to face the other three. “It was nice meeting you.” He says before turning and running to catch up with Louis.

“Sorry if they seemed a little… stiff.” Louis says when they are out of earshot of the others. “We haven’t let a new person in our group since Niall started living here, and that was about two years ago.” He smiles and cranes his neck so that he can look at the boy sitting between Liam and Zayn.

“They’re fine. Niall defiantly seems friendly.” Harry chuckles.

“He woke up early so I told him a little bit about you. I must have made you sound awesome because he got really excited.” He laughs. They enter the kitchen and begin pulling various breakfast items off the counter.

“Did you tell him about the…”

“Attic? No, of course not. I’m very good at keeping secrets, Harry.” He says with a wink.

The conservation died down for a few minutes. They both stood in the kitchen, looking at the counters covered with food, but not making any effort to get some. Harry’s eyes flicker over to Louis.

He definitely wanted to be friends with the older boy. He had all the qualities Harry really wanted in a friend. However, there was one thing stopping him. Well, three things. The boys. If Harry were to form a friendship with Louis, a long term one, he needed to get the other boys to like him too.

Niall seems like he would be easy to get along with. He gives the impression that he’s the kind of person who is everybody’s best friend. Liam, well, Liam seems like he would be nice to everyone, even if he didn’t like them. Which could either a really good or a really bad thing for Harry. Zayn is defiantly the one that will be a challenge. Harry needed to find a way to a way to get Zayn to feel comfortable around him.

“Umm, is there any way for Zayn to feel less shy around me? Anything I can do?” He asks grabbing a banana off the counter. Louis stops and thinks. He glances over at Zayn.

“Yeah, yeah there’s something you could do. Talk about Power Rangers with him.” Louis says looking back at Harry. “He loves Power Rangers.”

Harry bites his lip and looks awkwardly down at the ground. “Umm, I would, but I have never seen it before. I have no clue to what it is about.” Louis looks disappointed but then his disapproving frown turns into a smile.

“Well then I guess you and I will have to have a lazy day sometime soon. Where all we do is sit on the couch, watch Power Rangers, and stuff our faces with large amounts of incredibly unhealthy foods.” He nods and grabs a few apples off the counter. “Grab that box of crackers and let’s head back in there. They will start to get worried if we take any longer.”

Harry snatches a red box off the counter. Louis smiles and makes his way back to where the others are sitting. They dump the food on the table and sit on the love seat across from the other three boys. “I thought you guys were making us something, you were in there long enough.” Niall grumbles looking disgustedly down at the table.

“Hush up, Niall. Eat an apple, it’s good for you.” Liam says, handing Niall an apple.

~

“Just wake him up!”

“Shut up, Niall! You’ll wake everyone else up!”

“Liam, Louis told me to shut up!”

“Well Niall you were being rather loud.”

“You always side with him!”

“What are you talking about, Liam never sides with him.”

“Zayn, you need to whisper.”

“I was whispering!”

“All of you just shut up!”

Harry groans and rolls over. He forces his eyes open to see 4 pairs looking back at him. “Hey, Harry.” Louis whispers. “I want you to listen to me, ok?” Harry rubs his eyes and looks back and forth between the four boys. Louis raises his eyebrow, asking if he should continue. Harry nods. “Ok, I want you to get up, and meet the four of us in the backyard in 5 minutes. Don’t ask any questions, ok? They will all be answered when we’re outside. Oh, and put a jacket on, it’s quite cold out.”

The four boys smile mischievously at each other. Harry’s eyebrow rises in confusion. Before he can say anything, Louis turns and walks out the door, the other boys at his heels.

Harry sits in bed for another few minutes. He glances around the room, at the other boys, who remain asleep.

The boys room holds 10 boys, ages 4-14. There’s another room down the hall, where the older boys sleep. The room right next to theirs is the 4-14 girls room, and then the room next to that is the older girls room. If he were to meet the four of them outside, he would have to make it out of this room, and sneak past all the other rooms without waking anyone up. However, that’s no challenge, given that he does it every night to get to the attic.

This time though, it feels different. He gets to sneak out with people. More importantly, he gets to sneak out with Louis. This makes him nervous.

Trying to walk quietly down the hall turns out to be more of a challenge than Harry had previously thought. After tripping a few times and knocking a few things over, Harry makes it outside. Louis was right, it is cold. Harry zips up his jacket and starts walking out onto the grass.

“Hello?” He whispers. A hand flies in front of his mouth. Harry lets out a whimper.

“It’s fine, Harry. It’s just me.” Louis murmurs. “Alright, come on.” He pulls Harry over to a bush, removes his hand from Harry’s mouth, and crouches down to the ground. “Scoot over.” He whispers. The leaves rustle around for a second, before going calm again. Louis then crawls behind it, and Harry follows.

Behind the bush, Zayn and Liam sit quietly. “Is Niall back yet?” Louis asks. Liam shakes his head. As if he had been called, Niall dives behind the bush and crawls over to Liam and Zayn, sitting down in the clear spot in front of them. Once he is seated, he lifts up his shirt, revealing a can of peaches.

“Here ya go!” He says, passing it to Louis.

“Niall, Louis told you to get an empty can.” Zayn mumbles.

“I tried! There was none. So I thought it would be better to get a full one.” Niall sighs digging his fingers into the dirt. Louis rolls his eyes.

“I’ll find an empty can. There’s probably one in the garbage.” Zayn says. Louis hands him the peach can, and he crawls out from behind the bush. When they heard the back door close softly, Louis turns back to Harry.

“You ready to know what we’re doing?” He asks. Harry nods. “Ok, so we’re gonna play a game called Kick the Can, as a way to say ‘Welcome to the group’. It’s a tradition. We played when Niall joined too. Do you know how to play?” Harry shakes his head. “Ok, it’s simple. We put an empty,” his eyes flicker to Niall, “can on the ground, in the middle of the street. One of us will be it, and the others will hide. If the person that is it finds you and tags you, you must go and sit by the can. If one of the people hiding kicks the can over and doesn’t get caught, all the people sitting by the can are back in the game. Get it?” He asks.

“Yeah. “ Harry answers nodding his head. “Who is gonna be it?”

“Oh! I’ll be it!” Niall shrieks throwing his hand in the air. Louis puts his finger up to his mouth and ‘shhs’ him.

“Niall, you were it when we played hide n sneak last week.” Liam complains.

“Fine.” Niall grumbles. “Liam can be it.” Liam smiles to himself with satisfaction.

Zayn returns a few minutes later with an empty soup can. The five of them crawl out from behind the bush. Liam runs over to the gate, and quietly unlocks it. It creaks as it opens. The boys cringe at the sound. Their eyes shoot up to an open window on the second floor of the house.

“Liam, be a little more careful, Mr. and Mrs. Higgins bedroom is right there.” Zayn warns pointing to the window. Liam nods and pulls the gate open slowly. 

When the gate is open enough for them to squeeze through, Liam stops. He holds it open and lets Niall and Zayn go through. Then, Louis grabs the gate and tells Liam to go on, and they’ll catch up with them.

“Since you’re new at this, I’ll give you a tip.” Louis whispers. “Liam never looks in the places within 20 feet of the can. If you don’t want to get caught, hide close.”

~

“You guys ready?” Zayn asks a few minutes later. They all stand in a circle, around the can. Louis glances quickly over at Harry, who nods. 

“Three.” Niall begins counting down.

“Two.” The others join in.

“One!”

They dash off in all different directions while Liam stands in front of the can, counting down from 20. Harry makes a beeline to the closest bush he can find, and crawls behind it. He pushes some of the branches away until he can clearly see Liam.

About 15 seconds later, Liam uncovers his eyes and looks around. He starts walking in the opposite direction of Harry. Harry lets out a quiet sigh of relief and moves the branches back into place.

“Scoot over, Harry.” Someone whispers from behind him. He panics and whips his head around. “Oops. Didn’t mean to startle you.” Louis laughs. “But seriously, scoot over, before Liam finds both of us.”

Harry does what he was told, and moves over. Louis sits down next him. “Why did you follow me?” He asks.

“I hate hiding by myself. It’s so boring. I like to have someone to talk to.” Louis answers.

Harry nods. “Yeah, I could see how this could get boring after a while.”

“Have you never played Hide n Seek?”

“Nope.”

“Why?” Louis asks, astonished.

“I’ve never had anyone to play it with me.” Harry shrugs.

“Tomorrow you, me, and the others have to play Hide n Seek. And don’t worry; I’ll always hide with you. That way, you’ll never have to go through the pain of hiding by yourself.”

“My hero.” Harry says sarcastically.

“Hey, if you don’t want me to, I’ll go hide with Niall.” Louis smiles.

“No, no that’s fine. We can be hiding buddies.”

“Good.” He grins. Harry pushes the branches away, to see Liam walking towards them. They both clamp their mouths shut and sit perfectly still until he walks away.

~

They spend a year together. Sometime around June or July, Louis stopped sleeping in his own bed. He’d wait until he was sure everyone else was asleep, and then he’d tiptoe over to Harry’s bed and crawl in next to him.

In August, Zayn kissed Liam under the big tree in the front yard. Harry wondered if he should kiss Louis under the big tree too.

Niall broke his leg right before Halloween, so the boys pushed all their beds together and watched scary movies instead of trick or treating. Harry told Louis that he had never gone trick or treating before, so the next day, Louis got all the other kids in the house to give Harry a piece of their candy as he went door to door around the household.

On Thanksgiving, the five boys got sent to their room because they were throwing food at each other. Harry asked Louis what he was thankful for, and Louis said he was thankful for him.

For Christmas, Mr. and Mrs. Higgins got a big Christmas tree and set it up in the middle of the living room. The boys made matching ornaments and hung them all on the same branch. Every morning, Mrs. Higgins would move them somewhere else, because they were weighing the branch down, and every afternoon the boys would move the ornaments back. On Christmas day, they woke up at 6 in the morning and ran into the living room. Harry squealed at the sight of all the presents under the tree. Later that day, Mrs. Higgins made a ham and everybody gathered around the table to eat. The five were split up, so that the incident at Thanksgiving wouldn’t happen again. When everybody was fast asleep, Louis and Harry sneaked up to the attic. They each took a pillow and a blanket from their beds. They lay on top of Harry’s blanket, and under Louis’. Harry gave Louis a Peter Pan hat, because Peter Pan was his favorite movie. Louis gave Harry a journal, because he always heard him singing and thought maybe he could write a song.

After they exchanged presents, Harry found a rusty old nail on the floor of the attic. Louis smiled and took the nail from Harry. He climbed up on to the bench that was below the window and started carving something into the windowsill. When he was done, he smiled and motioned for Harry to come see. Engraved in the wood was “H+L Christmas 2007”. Harry told Louis that he was his best friend and Louis gave Harry the best hug he’d ever had.

They climbed back onto their blankets and said goodnight. But before Harry could fall asleep, he needed to ask Louis a question. “Do you think I’m a good singer?” He asked, his cheeks getting red. Louis nodded.

“I think you’re the best singer I’ve ever heard.” Louis admitted. Harry smiled and pulled the blanket up to his chin. His eyes fluttered shut, and he started to fall asleep. “Harry?” Louis asked.

Harry’s eyes flew back open. “Yeah?”

Louis blushed and looked down at Harry’s blanket. He carefully traced the patterns with his fingers. “Will you sing for me?”

Harry nodded and began to sing Silent Night because he saw Mrs. Higgins singing it to one of the babies earlier. Louis grinned and snuggled in closer to Harry. He was asleep before the song was over.

The next day, the two boys got in trouble because nobody could find them. They were grounded and forced to stay in their room while everybody else went to a parade. Harry sat on the floor and began to write songs in his journal while Louis jumped from bed to bed while wearing his Peter Pan hat.

In January, it was raining really hard, so the boys had to stay inside. They cooked dinosaur chicken nuggets and made a pillow fort in the middle of the bedroom. Liam got mad at Niall for double dipping in the ketchup and Niall did it a couple more times in spite of Liam. Zayn started laughing and ended up knocking one of the pillows down. The whole fort came toppling down on them. They were silent for a couple minutes before bursting into uncontrollable fits are laughter.

Louis made Harry a valentine for Valentine’s Day. Harry pinned it up on the wall next to his bed. Zayn kissed Liam again, and this time, Liam kissed back. Harry thought about kissing Louis, but he wrote a song about it instead.

In March, Louis told Harry that he was wonderful because he felt that Harry didn’t hear it enough.

April was when things changed. They had just finished celebrating Harry’s one year in the house, when a family walked into their room. They asked for Niall to come with them. He came back in a few minutes later with tears in the corners of his eyes. They were adopting him. He packed up his clothes and books and said goodbye. Louis refused to hug him. Liam hugged him enough for the both of them. Zayn cried. Harry offered to hide him because they couldn’t adopt him if they couldn’t find him.

In the end, there was an empty bed between Harry’s and Liam’s. Louis got mad and yelled at Mr. and Mrs. Higgins, asking them why they let Niall be adopted. They told him that it was their job. Louis would have yelled more, but he could see that they were crying too, so he quietly walked back into the bedroom.

The house was a lot quieter after that. Zayn stopped kissing Liam. Harry stopped writing songs. Louis stopped pretending he was Peter Pan.

~

In August, Mr. and Mrs. Higgins send them to public school. They had been home schooled up until that point. They got to go shopping for school supplies, which Harry really enjoyed. He picked out a set of blue pencils. They matched Louis’ eyes, which is why he picked them, but he wasn’t going to tell Louis that.

On the first day of school, they all line up in front of the bus stop. Harry wears his new collared shirt. Louis tells him that he looks nice.

“Thanks.” He mumbles. Louis throws his arm over Harry’s shoulders.

“Don’t be nervous Harry. You’re in the same class as Liam. Plus, I know you’ll make tons of new friends.” He says, adjusting the collar on Harry’s shirt.

The bus rolls up to the house. They wave goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Higgins and climb up the stairs into the bus. Harry smiles shyly at the bus driver, who waves back at him. They search the aisles until they find a row with both seats open. Harry and Louis sit on one seat and Liam and Zayn sit on the other, across the aisle.

The bus makes a few more stops before they hear a familiar voice. Harry looks up just as Niall comes bounding towards him and wrapping his arms around his neck.

“What are you doing here?” Louis cries with excitement.

“This is how I get to school?” He answers, slightly confused. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We go to public school now.” Liam answers. Niall smiles and plops himself down between Liam and Zayn.

“I missed you guys.” He smiles. “This is great! We can see each other every day now!”

The five boys talk and catch up the whole rest of the way to school. Niall tells them that the classes aren’t that bad, and that they can hang out together at lunch and during break. He introduces them to his friends, Ed and Cher. When the bus ride is over, they walk to their assigned classes. Niall ends up being in the same class and Liam and Harry.

“It’s weird not being in the same classes as Zayn and Louis.” Liam whispers to Harry in the middle of the lesson. Harry nods in agreement.

At lunch, they all gather on the grass. Louis and Harry share a peanut butter sandwich and toss grapes into each other’s mouths. Zayn brings over a girl named Perrie. Harry thinks she’s nice but Liam clearly doesn’t like her. After a few of her friends come over and invite her to go eat with them, she leaves. Zayn waves goodbye and looks back at the group.

“So, what do you think? She’s cool, right?” He asks, smiling. Harry shrugs.

“She seems nice enough.” He watches as Louis lines up the grape so that it has a clear path into Harry’s mouth. Harry opens his mouth wide and tilts his head back slightly. Louis tosses the grape in the air. It lands perfectly in Harry’s mouth.

“Beautiful throw!” Niall cheers, clapping his hands.

“Beautiful catch.” Louis adds, nodding at Harry.

“I don’t like her.” Liam states. The others turn and look at him. “Perrie, I don’t like her.”

“Why? She was perfectly nice.” Niall questions. Louis nods in agreement.

“Yeah, she even offered to share her carrot sticks.” He says. Liam shrugs and picks the crust off of his sandwich.

Niall picks up one of the crust scraps and pops it in his mouth. “We should have a sleepover this weekend.” He proposes. “I miss the house.”

“Totally!” Harry says. “Your bed is still empty, so you can sleep in it.”

“We should just push the beds together like we did on Halloween.” Zayn suggests.

~

On Friday night, the boys sneak Niall into their room. “Why are you sneaking me in?” Niall asks. “Don’t they know I’m here?” Zayn shakes his head.

“Nope! We thought we would surprise them!” He says, grabbing Niall by the shoulders and moving him to the center of the room. “Go ahead and call them in, Harry.”

Harry smiles and clears his throat. “Mr. and Mrs. Higgins!” He cries. He hears footsteps running down the stairs. A few moments later, the door swings open.

“Harry! What’s wron-,” Mr. Higgins’ words are cut short when he sees Niall. Niall’s face lights up, and he runs over to give him a hug.

“Is this ok with your parents? You being here?” Mrs. Higgins asks, joining the hug. Niall nods. “We sure have missed you.” She adds.

The hug last for a few moments longer, before they all pull away. Mr. Higgins leaves shortly after that. Mrs. Higgins promises to make Niall’s favorite meal, before following her husband out of the room. Niall grins and leaps up onto his bed. It squeaks under his weight. “Just as uncomfortable as I remember.” He says to himself.

Liam turns on the TV and grabs the remote. He tosses it to Niall and goes to sit next to him on the bed. Niall flips through a couple channels before landing on High School Musical. He smiles smugly to himself and sets the remote down on his bedside table. The other boys push two of the beds next to Niall’s. Louis laughs.

“So not only are we going to be sleeping together, but we’re also gonna be watching High School Musical?” He asks. Niall nods his head. “Ok. Since you’re the guest of honor.” He crawls into the bed on the far left, next to Harry. Zayn and Liam lay down on the one on the right, and Niall in the one in the middle.

“I’ll be the one laughing when you’re the one singing all the songs.” Niall quips.

Louis holds himself back from singing any songs until the very end of the movie, when Harry starts singing Breaking Free, he can’t help but duet. When they were finished, they high five each other and turn to look at the other boys.

“You two are quite good.” Zayn says, nodding his head in approval.

“Thanks.” Harry mumbles.

As it turned out, all three High School Musicals were on back to back. No boy had any objection to watching them, so the remote remained on the night stand, untouched. Niall soloed Bet On It during High School Musical 2, and Liam and Zayn sang Can I Have This Dance together during Senior Year.

“I never knew you guys had such great voices.” Harry states. 

“How could we have known each other for this long without ever hearing each other sing?” Louis laughs. Niall sits up on his bed and crosses his legs.

“Guys. I have an idea.” He says. “We should form a band.” Harry laughs.

“Niall, just because we can sing doesn’t mean we should form a band. Besides, none of us play any instruments!”

“We could be a boy band.” Liam suggests.

“And my parents signed me up for guitar lessons.” Niall adds. “Come on guys! We don’t even really have to do anything. Let’s just think of a cool name and tell everybody that we’re in a band and maybe play a set every once in a while.”

“Being in a band would actually be pretty cool.” Louis admits. Niall grins and gives Louis a high five.

“I guess.” Harry grumbles.

“Come on, Harry! You have a ton of songs in that journal of yours. Wouldn’t you like to put them to use?” Niall pushes. Harry rolls his eyes.

“Fine, fine. But only if we can think of a cool name.” Niall throws his fist in the air.

“Yes!” He hops of his bed. “This is going to be so cool.”

“Doesn’t being in a band require having a lot of money?” Zayn asks. Niall nods his head.

“Yep. And I have the perfect place to store it.” He crawls under his bed. The four boys give each other questioning looks. Niall emerges a few moments later with something under his shirt. He smiles and clears his throat.

“Boys, over a year ago we played a game called Kick the Can. Louis instructed me to go find an empty can. I could not find one, and Louis was snappish towards me. Zayn ended getting an empty soup can. That night, after you were asleep, I went back outside and grabbed said soup can, just in case I ever couldn’t find an empty one again.” He lifts up his shirt and reveals the soup can. “I think we should store our money in here.” He crawls back onto his bed and passes the can to Louis.

“I guess this could work.” Louis says, passing the can over to Harry.

“It’d make a cool story if we ever became famous.” Harry chuckles. ”Saying that we stored our money in a soup can.”

“Not only that, it was the soup can that we played Kick the Can with on the day we met Harry.” Liam adds.

“But think about it. If we ever become famous, and people ask us when we decided to become a band, we’ll have to tell them that we were having a High School Musical marathon and were singing along to the songs and decided that we sounded decent enough to be in a band.” Louis laughs. The other boys stop smiling.

“We’ll have plenty of time to think up a cooler story.” Niall says, taking the can from Harry. He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a dime, and drops it in.

~

“Louis, can you hold the tape while I put up this poster?” Harry asks. Louis walks over and takes the tape out of his hands.

“It was nice of your parents to make these posters for us.” Louis says, looking at Niall. Niall looks down at the babysitting/dog sitting poster and nods.

“Yeah, they’re pretty cool. I think they like that we’re actually working to get the money.” He says. “It was nice of them to give us a ride to the mall though.” He adds. Louis and Harry nod in agreement. Harry finishes putting the poster up on the wall, and takes the tape back from Louis. Zayn jogs over to them.

“Hey Louis.” He says, slightly out of breath. “Perrie and Eleanor are here and they asked if we wanted to meet them in the food court.”

“Of course.” Louis says smiling. Zayn turns around and heads in the direction of the food court. Louis follows.

“But Louis!” Harry calls after him. “I thought we were going to finish putting up these posters?” Louis stops walking and looks back at Harry.

“Umm… Do you think you, Liam, and Niall can finish?” He asks. Harry looks down at the ground.

“Yeah.” He mutters. Louis smiles at him, and then turns around and runs after Zayn. Liam walks over from the direction that Zayn had come from. He sees Zayn and Louis walking towards the food court and rolls his eyes.

Niall hands Liam a couple posters. “They’ve been hanging out with them a lot lately.” Liam nods. “Do you still not like Perrie?” Niall asks.

“She’s fine. I just don’t like that she’s making Zayn spend all his free time with her.” He mutters. Harry looks up.

“It’s the same with Eleanor.” He cuts in. “She makes Louis eat lunch with her. She gets to spend all day in class with him, why does she need to eat lunch with him too?”

“At least you guys live with them.” Niall whispers. Harry and Liam look him and sigh. They drop the subject.

“Come on.” Harry says. “I think I saw another bulletin board over here.” He states, walking in the opposite direction of the food court.

~

The cycle continued. Harry, Niall, and Liam spent most of their free time working while Louis and Zayn spent most of theirs with Eleanor and Perrie. Niall started spending every weekend over at the house.

Louis moved up to the older boys bedroom, however every single night, he’d sneak into his old room and crawl into Harry’s bed. Harry always wanted to ask him why he didn’t hang out with them during school anymore, but instead, he’d snuggle in closer to him and fall asleep.

Harry started writing songs again. Most of them were about Louis. He once saw Liam looking through his journal, so he started keeping it up in the attic.

They earned enough money to buy a couple of microphones. They were so excited that they started putting on little concerts in the living room every Friday night. One of the little girls said that they should call their band One Direction, and it stuck.

On Christmas, Harry waited for Louis all night in the attic. He never showed up. It didn’t surprise Harry, but there was still a little part of him that was hoping maybe he’d show. He put his present for Louis down on the ground and slid it under the bench below the window. He found the rusty nail on the ground and carved “H Christmas 2008” on the windowsill. Then, he tiptoed downstairs and went to sleep.

Harry didn’t get a Valentine from Louis that year. Eleanor got one. Harry wondered if she pinned up hers next to her bed.

Over the summer, the boys managed to make enough money to buy some recording equipment. Louis missed their first band practice. Niall’s parents felt bad and took them out to lunch. Harry saw Louis and Eleanor at the restaurant with Eleanor’s family. He pretended not to notice them.

Louis started high school that August. His first day of freshman year was the last day he slept in Harry’s bed. Harry crawled into Liam’s bed the next night and Liam pretended that he couldn’t hear Harry cry. 

Niall’s parents took the three boys to the amusement park for Niall’s birthday. They took pictures in a photobooth and agreed that the pictures looked a little empty with only three people in them.

In November, Zayn told them that he had broken up with Perrie. Liam got upset because he was never told that Zayn was ever dating her. He eventually got over it and gave Zayn one of the biggest hugs Harry had ever seen. They invited Niall over and the four of them sat on their old couch in the living room. They caught Zayn up on everything that had happened to them over the past year. Louis walked in and saw them all sitting together, laughing. He debated going over and sitting with them, before turning back and walking to his room. Zayn said that he had never liked Eleanor and Harry laughed harder than he should have.

The next day, Niall’s parents took them ice skating. Harry fell down twice as much as everyone else. Zayn helped him up every time. After Harry insisted that they should stop skating, because he couldn’t take another fall, they all got hot chocolate and French fries. Liam got mad at Niall for double dipping in the ketchup and Zayn laughed so hard that he spilled his hot chocolate. It almost felt like nothing had changed.

On Christmas, Louis sat with them during dinner. He didn’t say anything, and right after it was over, he got up and went to his room. Harry didn’t bother waiting for him in the attic that year.

The next day, he went up to the attic after everyone had gone to bed. He sat down on the bench below the window and looked outside. The ground was covered with a fresh layer of snow. He kept looking out the window until his breath fogged up the glass so much that he couldn’t see anything anymore. He sighed and looked down at the windowsill. There was a new carving under the one he made the year before. He ran his fingertips over the “L Christmas 2009”. He reached under the bench to see if Louis’ present was still there. It wasn’t. In its place was a small square package. He quickly tore the paper off and opened the box. Inside was a The Script CD.

Harry listened to that CD so often that everybody in the house was ready to throw it out the window. Louis was the only one that didn’t complain.

During the summer, Niall’s parents take them all camping, and this time they invite Louis. They only brought tents big enough for 2 or 3, so Harry volunteers to share one with Louis. On the first night, they sleep on opposite ends of the mat. Harry starts to think maybe sharing a tent with him was a bad idea, when Louis’ voice interrupts his thoughts.

“Hey Harry?” He asks.

“Yeah?” Harry responds. He can feel Louis roll over on the mat, so that he’s facing Harry’s back. Harry rolls over too.

“Do you like your CD?” He whispers. Harry laughs.

“Yeah I love it. I don’t think anyone else in the house does, but I do.” He says. Louis grins.

They lay in silence for a few minutes. Outside, Harry can here crickets and birds and Liam telling Niall to stop kicking him.

“Did you like your present from last year? I saw that it wasn’t under the bench anymore. I assume that you must have taken it.” He says quietly.

“The necklace?” Louis asks. “Yeah, I like it a lot. I have it on my bedside table back home.”

Harry smiles and rolls over. He pats the bottom of the tent a couple of times before his hand finds a flashlight. He turns to face Louis again and turns the flashlight on. “Look.” He says, shoving his hand down the top of him pajama shirt. He pulls out the bottom of the necklace he was wearing and shines the light on it. “I got myself the same one.” He says proudly, looking down at the airplane dangling at the bottom of the chain.

“You got us a friendship necklace?” Louis snorts.

“No no no.” He defends. “I just got us the same necklace. I really like it and I wanted one too.”

“I should wear mine more often then, huh?” Louis smiles and takes the flashlight from Harry. He turns it off and tosses off the edge of the mat. “Come on, we should probably get some sleep.” He says, moving closer to Harry.

“Sounds good. Goodnight.” Harry whispers. He pulls his blanket up to his chin and closes his eyes.

“Harry?” Louis murmurs.

“Yeah?” He asks softly.

“I’m sorry for missing the first band practice.” Louis mumbles.

~

About a week after school started, Louis slowly walks into his old bedroom. Harry sees him and immediately moves over on his bed so that Louis can sit next to him. Niall, Liam, and Zayn glance at him, and then turn their focus back towards the movie they were watching.

“I called things off with Eleanor.” He says.

Niall reaches for the remote and mutes the TV. “Why?” He asks. Louis takes a deep breath and walks over to the spot next to Harry. He sits down and stares at his hands.

“She found out that we lived in a home. I don’t know I guess she thinks it’s embarrassing. She found out a couple weeks ago and hasn’t stopped bugging me about it ever since. It’s like she thinks she’s above us just being she has parents.” He stops talking. Harry wraps his arms around his shoulders and pulls him into a hug.

“She’s totally wrong.” Niall says. “I would give anything to live in this house again.” Louis looks up.

“I thought you liked your parents?” He asked.

“No, I do. They’re cool but I liked living here.” He says. “I’m an only child in that house and it gets boring. I liked living with a bunch of other people. You can never get bored here.” He smiles.

“Boys it’s time to go to bed.” Mrs. Higgins says, walking into the room. She sees Niall and sighs. “Niall, it’s a school night, why are you still here?” Niall pouts and stands up from his bed.

“If I call my parents and ask to sleep over, and they say it’s ok, can I sleep over?” He asks. Mrs. Higgins purses her lips. She thinks about it for a couple of moments.

“Fine, but only if you boys promise to go to sleep.” She says before walking out of the room. Niall runs to get his phone and quickly dials his mom’s number. After a few minutes of arguing, she finally agrees. The boys celebrate, and then quickly change into their pajamas and get into their assigned rooms/beds before Mrs. Higgins did her nightly room check.

~

“We’ve been standing here for 5 minutes. Can we just wake him up already?”

“I don’t want him to be grumpy.”

“Harry has a point. Louis can be rather grumpy if he gets woken up.”

“If we’re not gonna wake him up than there’s no point to this.”

“Alright Niall has a point too.”

“Liam you need to whisper.”

“Be quiet Zayn, I was whispering.”

Harry puts his finger up to his lips. The other boys stop talking. He slowly shakes Louis’ side until the older boy opens his eyes. He groans and pushes Harry’s hand away. “Louis wake up.” Harry whispers. Louis rolls over and looks up at the four boys.

“Why are you all here?” He grumbles.

“I want you to get up, and meet the four of us in the backyard in 5 minutes. Don’t ask any questions, ok? They will all be answered when we’re outside. Oh, and put a jacket on, it’s quite cold out.” Harry says, giggling. Louis rolls his eyes and sits up.

Harry motions for the other boys to follow him outside. They quietly tiptoe through the house until they get to the back door. Liam grabs the doorknob and slowly turns it. There’s a click, indicating that it is turned all the way. He carefully pulls the door open, trying not to make it squeak.

When they are all outside, Harry holds the door open and asks Niall to run back inside and get a can. Niall nods and sprints back into the kitchen. The other three go behind the bush by the door. When Harry sees Louis’ silhouette appear on the grass, he quickly gets up and walks over to him.

“You ready to know what we’re gonna be doing?” He whispers. Louis jumps and turns around to face him.

“You startled me!” He says quietly. Harry smiles to himself. “I think I have a pretty good idea. You know, I was the one who taught you how to play Kick the Can.”

“Yes, but it’s a game that we play when someone joins the group. It’s our way of welcoming you back.” Harry says, pulling Louis over to the bush. The door quietly opens, and Niall emerges. He tosses Harry the empty soup can and walks over to the gate. Harry helps Liam and Zayn get out from behind the bush and then walks over to Niall. He silently opens the gate, and lets everybody slip through.

They decide Niall will be it. Harry places the can in the middle of the street and goes to stand next to Louis. “Everybody ready?” He asks. The boys all nod.

“Three.” Niall begins counting down.

“Two.” The others join in.

“One!”

They sprint off into different directions. Niall covers his eyes with his hands and begins to count backwards from 30. Harry watches Louis dive behind a parked car, and quickly follows him. He reaches the car and plops down next to Louis.

“What are you doing?” Louis whispers.

“We’re hiding buddies, remember?” Harry responds.

~

That night, after they all went to bed, Harry feels someone shaking his shoulder. He opens his eyes to see Louis sitting on the edge of his bed. “Can I talk to you?” He whispers. Harry nods and sits up. He rubs his eyes, trying to wake himself up. Louis stands and starts walking towards the door. Harry pushes himself off the bed of follows.

They walk noiselessly down the hall until they reach the ladder that leads to the attic. Louis lets Harry go first. When they both are safely in the attic, they sit on the bench. Harry doesn’t say anything for a couple minutes; instead, he looks out the window. Louis clears his throat.

“So umm… I wanted to tell you why I broke up with Eleanor.” He says softly. Harry gives him a confused look.

“You already told us?” He says. Louis shakes his head.

“I told you a reason, but it wasn’t the only one, and it wasn’t the big one.” He mumbles. Harry knits his eyebrows in confusion.

“What do you mean?” He asks. Louis takes a deep breath.

“I realized something a couple weeks ago.” He says. “And I decided that it was unfair to Eleanor for me to still be with her.” He stops talking and runs his fingers over the windowsill.

“You’re scaring me, Louis.” Harry says. “You can trust me, you know.” Louis smiles.

“Yeah, I know that. It’s just this is hard for me to say because I’ve never told anyone before.” He mumbles. He takes a deep breath before continuing. “What would you say if I told you that I liked boys in the way that I should like girls?”

Harry bites his lip and thinks. “I probably would just say ok. Or maybe I’d say cool and pat you on the back.” Louis sits up.

“You mean, you wouldn’t care?” He whispers. Harry shakes his head.

“Of course not! Why would I? You’d still be my best friend, and that’s all I really care about.” He shrugs. Louis smiles and leans forward to hug him.

“Thank you.” He whispers.

~

In September, Niall’s parents threw him another birthday party. This time the photobooth was so full that they struggled getting them all in the picture. Niall elbowed Harry in the face during the transition between the second and third picture. Louis laughed so hard that he couldn’t calm himself down before the next picture was taken. Niall said it was his favorite birthday so far.

In October, the boys went trick or treating. Harry told Louis to be Peter Pan, since he already had the hat and to make it fair, Louis got to pick what Harry was. He kept it a secret, but insisted that it was going to be cool. However, on the day of Halloween, Louis handed Harry a bed sheet with two eye holes cut out of it and told him to be a ghost. Harry pouted and told him it was lame and Louis made sure that Harry got the most candy to make up for it.

In November, Liam kissed Zayn. Harry wondered what it was like to kiss someone, so he asked Louis.

“It’s not as great as the movies make it seem.” He said. Harry looked down, disappointed. “But I’ve never kissed a boy before, so maybe it feels different.” He added.

Harry didn’t try to kiss him because they had just eaten lunch and his lips probably tasted like spaghetti. Instead, he snuck into Mr. and Mrs. Higgins room, went on to their computer, and googled “how to kiss”. Mrs. Higgins caught him midsearch and gave him a 45 minute lecture on why he was too young.

In December, Louis started sleeping in Harry’s bed again. On Christmas, they snuck up to the attic to exchange gifts. They got settled on the bench, and hid their presents behind their backs. Louis insisted that he went first. After a few minutes of disagreeing, Harry finally agreed. Louis grinned and handed Harry a white envelope. Harry gave him a puzzled look, before opening it. Inside, were two tickets to see the Script.

“How did you afford these?” He asked, his eyes wide. Louis smiled and looked down.

“I’ve been saving for a while.” He murmured. Harry smiled widely and leaned over to give Louis a hug. Louis laughed into his shoulder and whispered, “That second ticket better go to me.” Harry pulled back.

“Oh really? Cause I was thinking about giving it to Niall.” He joked. Louis gasped.

“Not on your life, Styles. Do you know how many dogs I had to walk to get these?” He laughed.

“Of course you’re gonna get the second ticket.” Harry said, rolling his eyes. He pulled Louis’ present out from behind his back and handed it to him. “Here,” he said. “Open mine.” Louis held the thin box in this hand for a second, before opening it. Inside, he found a piece of paper.

“What’s this?” He asked, pulling the paper out and pushing the box onto the floor.

“Song lyrics.” Harry said proudly.

“To what song?” Louis asked, confused.

“The one I wrote for you.” Harry mumbled, his cheeks getting red. Louis looked up from the paper.

“You wrote me a song?” His eyes filled up with tears. Harry nodded. “Well, can you sing it for me?” He asked.

Harry laughed and shook his head. “I actually don’t have any music for it yet.” He admitted. “I was planning on asking Niall to play guitar, but I wanted you to be the first one to see it.”

Louis smiled and set the song lyrics down on the windowsill. He spotted the old nail, sitting in the corner of it. He quickly picked it up and carved “H+L Christmas 2010” below the carving he had made the year before. 

In January, the boys decided that they were going to audition for the XFactor. They asked Niall’s parents if they could pretend to be the judges, and would sing for them once a week. The other boys and girls in the house were so excited, that they started making posters for them even though it was months before auditions even started.

On Valentines Day, Harry kissed Louis under the big tree in the front yard. Louis smiled and kissed him back, but something didn’t feel right. When everyone was asleep, they tiptoed up to the attic. This time, Louis kissed Harry first. It was soft and sweet and ended way too soon.

After they pulled apart, Harry asked, “Why did it feel more special this time?” Louis chuckled.

“I don’t know. Maybe because the big tree is Liam and Zayn’s place. This is place is our place.” He said.

Harry nodded and walked over to the bench. He sat down and swung his legs around so he could look out the window. Louis followed. “I’m glad we have this place.” Harry mumbled. Louis moved closer to Harry so that their legs could touch.

“Me too.” He whispered, resting his head on Harry’s shoulder. Harry smiled and continued to stare out the window.

They sat in silence, looking out the window, until their breath fogged up the glass so much that they could no longer see outside. Harry shifted around so that his head could rest against the window. Then, he draped his arms around Louis, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.


End file.
